Effective: May 17, 2018
Messer Studios provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive when you visit and use our website located at www.professormesser.com (the “Website”). This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through the Website. This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Website and exact date it goes into effect. You are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes.
I. Information Collection
Personally Identifiable Information
- At various locations on our Website, we may request that you supply us with “Personally Identifiable Information,” (“PII”). You will always know when we are collecting PII because we only collect PII when you voluntarily submit it to us.
- If you choose to give us PII through our Website, we will collect and retain that information (unless otherwise indicated in this Privacy Policy), and you consent to the transfer and storage of that information on our servers located in the United States. If you choose not to give us PII, we may not be able to provide you with any services you may request or require.
- If you choose to purchase our products, we will collect PII from you, including PII such as your name, email address, mailing and shipping addresses, and home or work telephone number. We partner with other companies (such as Stripe and PayPal) for payment process, and the payment information you submit is collecte and used by them in accordance with their privacy policies. Messer Studios does not store your payment information apart from the last four digits of your credit card, expiration date, and country, which we require for tax, government regulatory, and security purposes.
- If you choose to contact us by commenting on our Website or posting in our forums, we will collect PII from you, including PII such as your first and last name, your email address, your IP address, and any other PII you provide in your comment or post.
- If you choose to participate in our online chat service, we will collect PII from you, including PII such as your first and last name, your email address, your IP address, and any other PII you provide in your comment or post.
- If you choose to contact us by sending us an email, we will collect PII from you, including PII such as your first and last name, your email address, and any other PII you provide in the content of your communication to us.
- If you choose to subscribe to our feed or join our email list, we will collect PII from you, including PII such as your first and last name and your email address.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information
- When you use the Website, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website or online service (“Log Data”). This PII is IP Protocol address, browser type, the webpage you were visiting before you came to the Website and information you search for on the Website. Like many websites, we use “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We may use “persistent cookies” to save your username and login password for future logins to the Website. We also may use “session ID cookies” to enable certain features of the Website, to better understand how you interact with the Website and to monitor web traffic routing on the Website and aggregate usage of the Website. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Website or all functionality of the Website.
- The Website also includes buttons, tools, or content that links to other companies’ services (for example, a Facebook “Like” button). We may collect Non-PII about your use of these features. Further, to the extent you have made PII public (including in your user account details), we may be able to collect your PII. In addition, when you see or interact with these buttons, tools, or content, or view a webpage containing them, some information from your browser may automatically be sent to the other company. Please read that company’s privacy policy for more information.
II. How We Use This Information
Personally Identifiable Information
- If you choose to purchase our products, we may use the PII you provide us, including your name, email address, mailing and shipping addresses, home or work telephone number, and/or credit card information to provide the product you requested.
- If you choose to comment on the Website, post in our forums, post in our chat, or otherwise contact us, we may use the PII you provide us, including your name, email address, and the content of your communication in order to consider and, as appropriate, reply to your communication, respond to your request, or contact you later.
- If you choose to subscribe to our feed or join our email list, we may use the PII you provide us, including your name and email address, in order to provide the requested service.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information
- We use information we obtain by technical means (such as the automatic recording performed by our servers or through the use of cookies) for the above purposes and in order to monitor and analyze use of the Website and for the technical administration of the Website, to increase the functionality and user-friendliness of the Website, to better tailor both to your needs, to generate and derive useful data and information concerning the interests, characteristics and Website use behavior of our users, and to verify that visitors and users to and of the Website meet the criteria required to process their requests.
European Union Users
Data protection law in Europe requires a “lawful basis” for collecting and retaining personal information from citizens of the EU. Our lawful bases include:
Our contract with you: In some circumstances, we need your personal information to comply with our contractural obligation to deliver the Services, complete your purchases, and provide an account to download your purchased products.
Legal compliance: Legal requirements may require us to collect and use your data. For example, tax laws require us to retain a record of all purchases made through our Services.
Legitimate interests: A legitimate interest is a term used in data protection law which essentially means that we have a good and fair reason to use your data in ways that do not hurt your interests and rights. We may require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way that might reasonably be expected as part of running our business. This process does not materially impact your rights, freedom, or interests. For example, we use this data to prevent abuse and fraud and keep our Services secure. We may also send you promotional messages, and you have the ability to control whether we do so.
We analyze interactions with our Site to understand the usability and availability of our Site. This data allows us to develop and improve the quality of services and product offerings.
III. Information Sharing and Disclosure
Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, we do not give, share, sell, or transfer any PII to any third party.
Approved Users
- We may share your PII with authorized third-parties, agents, or contractors in order to provide a requested product, service or transaction. For example, if we wish to join our email list, we must share your name and email address with the company which administers this service for us.
- We may also share Non-Personal Information and Log Data (“Aggregate Information”) and PII with third party service providers to facilitate the Website, to provide the Website on our behalf, to perform services related to administration of the Website (including, without limitation, maintenance, hosting and data center management services, web analytics and administration). These third parties have access to your PII only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement
Messer Studios cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of Professor Messer or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop any activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, illegal, unethical, inappropriate or legally actionable.
Business Transfers
Messer Studios may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including Aggregate Information and your PII, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.
IV. Access and Corrections to Personally Identifiable Information
You may contact us at any time via the Contact Us link on our site to request any of the following: (1) learn what PII is held about you, if any, (2) change or correct any PII we have about you, (3) instruct us to delete any PII we have about you, and (4) express any concern you have about our use of your PII.
After receiving a request to change or correct your PII, we will make reasonable efforts to ensure that all of your PII stored in databases we actively use will be updated as soon as reasonably practicable. However, we reserve the right to retain in our archival files any information we remove from or change in our active website databases. In addition, it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to us. A copy of your PII may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate.
V. Links to Other Sites
The Website may contain links to other websites. If you choose to visit an advertiser by clicking on a banner ad or other type of advertisement, or click on another third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website. The fact that we link to a website or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement is not an endorsement of such third party’s privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other websites and services are not subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy and follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.
VI. Our Policy Toward Children
Messer Studios does not knowingly collect PII from children under 13. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with PII without their consent, he or she should contact us via the Contact Us link on this site. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with PII, we will endeavor to delete such information from our files as soon as possible.
VII. Security
Messer Studios is concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access. However, there is always some risk in transmitting information electronically. We cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.
VIII. International Transfer
Your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide PII to Professor Messer, please be advised that we transfer PII to the United States and process it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Users in certain countries, including the European Union, are afforded certain rights regarding their personal information. Except where an exception or exemption applies, these rights include the ability to access, correct, and request deletion of your personal information. We may retain certain information as required by law or as necessary for our legitimate business purposes.
IX. Phishing
Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern to Messer Studios. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your account ID, login password, or any other PII in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication. For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website.
X. Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us via the Contact Us link on this site.